Most assume that high performers succeed because they work harder, think faster or have some rare talent the rest of us don’t. And while, of course, ability certainly matters, it only takes you so far. Instead, psychology suggests that many exceptional performers share something else in common: metacognition.

Often described as “ thinking about thinking ,” metacognition refers to our ability to observe, evaluate and regulate our own mental processes. It’s the difference between simply doing a task and stepping back to ask:

  • “Is this actually working?”
  • “Am I approaching this the right way?”
  • “What could I be doing better?”

In a way, metacognition is your mind’s quality-control system. Rather than becoming fully absorbed in the task at hand, people with strong metacognitive skills create a degree of psychological distance from their own thinking. And with this distance, they can monitor their progress, scrutinize their assumptions and adjust course when necessary.

As easy as this sounds on paper, it’s not quite as simple in practice. Decades of psychological research suggest that metacognition plays a critical role in the highest tiers of learning, performance and expertise development. So while effort does matter, high performers are often distinguished by how effectively they direct that effort.

Whether they’re preparing for an important presentation, building a business, training for a marathon or mastering a new skill, they tend to leverage metacognition in three key ways. Here’s a breakdown of each, according to psychological research.

1. High Performers Spend More Time Planning Before Acting

Many people understandably equate productivity with immediate action or speed. An email arrives, and they respond. A new project appears, and they get going immediately. A challenge emerges, and they begin working before fully understanding what success would even look like.

However, high performers will usually take a different approach. Before investing any amount of time and energy into the problem itself, they first spend time planning. They clarify objectives, anticipate obstacles, identify resources and think strategically about how they intend to proceed.

Research on self-regulated learning supports this tendency. A 2017 review published in Frontiers in Psychology identified forethought as one of the three most foundational components of effective self-regulated learning. This means that, rather than simply diving in head-first and engaging in their tasks, they actively prepare by setting goals and selecting strategies before execution even begins.

Some people might see this planning phase as inefficient or as a reflection of overthinking. After all, there’s no visible progress being made during this stage. But in reality, the benefits of this stage are invisible; planning is what prevents costly mistakes later, which is undeniably important.

Consider a manager preparing for a high-stakes client meeting. One person might spend hours creating slides and gathering information. Another starts by asking themselves: “What is the client’s primary concern?” “What outcome am I hoping to achieve?” “Which points matter most?”

By the end of the day, the second person will likely have spent less time working, yet will also have produced a far more effective result. This reflects one of metacognition’s central advantages: it helps people optimize their efforts before it’s expended.

2. High Performers Continuously Monitor Their Performance

Planning is only the beginning. Once high performers begin working, they don’t switch off their self-awareness and simply power through. They continue to monitor how things are going.

Psychologists refer to this process as metacognitive monitoring: the ability to assess one’s own understanding, progress and performance as they go. This means that rather than just assessing surface-level metrics — like, “Am I working hard?” — individuals with strong metacognitive skills tend look at the broader context: “Am I making progress?”

In a 2020 systematic review published in Metacognition and Learning , researchers examined existing studies on monitoring judgments and learning outcomes. Across the literature, the authors found that accurate monitoring helps people identify gaps in their knowledge and, in turn, make better decisions about where to allocate their attention and effort.

In practical terms, this means noticing when a strategy isn’t working before you waste days or weeks trying to follow it through. Imagine, for instance, someone studying for a professional certification exam. After several hours of reviewing their notes, they pause and ask themselves: “Could I actually explain these concepts from memory? Or do they just feel familiar because I keep going over them?

Self-reflective moments like these can reveal important weaknesses or gaps that otherwise stay hidden. The same principle applies in workplaces, creative pursuits, athletics and entrepreneurship; high performers frequently check their own assumptions, evaluate their progress against objective criteria and make adjustments when necessary. They treat their performance as something they need to constantly take inventory of.

3. High Performers Avoid The Illusion Of Competence

Perhaps the most valuable metacognitive habit of all is recognizing that our minds are surprisingly easy to fool. One of the most enduring findings in psychological research is that our familiarity with a subject will often masquerade as understanding.

We’ve all experienced it at some point or another. You read a chapter several times, review your notes or revisit a presentation draft. Everything feels clear, so your confidence grows. You assume you’ve mastered the material… until someone asks you to explain it for them. Suddenly, the gaps in your knowledge become painstakingly obvious.

This is what psychologists refer to as “the illusion of competence”: the mistaken belief that we know more than we actually do. In a renowned 2005 study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition , researchers demonstrated just how easily learners can develop inflated confidence when information is repeatedly re-read. Participants often believed they had learned material effectively, but when tested in a meaningful way, their actual retention and understanding were much weaker than expected.

The problem is that familiarity with a subject is often misconstrued as fluency. When information feels easy to process, it’s common to interpret that feeling as evidence of your mastery of it. But high performers actively resist this trap. Instead of relying solely on their ability to review content passively, they actively seek evidence of their understanding of the topic.

For example, a consultant who’s preparing for an important presentation will eventually force themselves to close their notes and instead start explaining the key points aloud. Or, similarly, a student will test themselves before an exam rather than simply rereading and highlighting their notes.

The only problem with these strategies is that they feel much more difficult than passive consumption of content or knowledge — because they deliberately expose your greatest weaknesses. Yet that’s exactly why they work. Metacognition thrives on feedback, and accurate feedback asks you to confront what you don’t know, rather than just reinforcing what already feels familiar to you.

Ultimately, this may be the defining characteristic of high performers. They don’t assume their thinking is correct just because it feels like it is. They constantly put their own assumptions under the microscope, even if no one else is asking them to.

It can be an uncomfortable process at times, but the rewards of following it through make it worth it: they can learn faster, adapt sooner and improve continuously. Given that success increasingly depends on learning and adaptation, this may be one of the most powerful mental habits you could ever develop.

Do you think like a high performer? Take my fun, science-inspired Metacognition Test to discover how effectively you monitor, evaluate and adapt your thinking.